Billy Corgan says Radiohead were ‘last band that did anything new with the guitar’

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has written off the last 15 years of rock music, saying that the last band to do anything innovative with their guitars were Radiohead.

The musician made his claims in a recent interview, opening up on his theories as to why guitar music has dropped off in popularity and more people listen to electronic music and pop.

“We get our asses kicked by EDM or some of these artists that are more keyboard and drum machine and reverb,” Corgan told EW. “They’re engaging in new technology. Guitar isn’t new technology—there are only so many ways you can warp it around. Radiohead was probably the last band that really did anything new with the guitar.”

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Elaborating on his theories about audiences and how they react to different kinds if music, Corgan continued: “If all you hear is pop and all you see are perfect performances and everybody smiling, to actually see a band invoke a darker spirit on stage and conjure it right in front of you in a mass of power you can’t explain, that is quite rare to that audience. No band in the past 15 years has come along and figured out how to do that. Most of the bands you can point to that have been successful that still do that, like Queens Of The Stone Age, they’re coming from an earlier generation of power and an earlier language, even though they’re having contemporary success.

However, he did single Royal Blood out as one band who show signs of reviving what he considers to be a flagging genre: “There are some flashes, like a Royal Blood or something, where they’re trying to figure that power out, but they’re dealing with an audience that is so predisposed to pop.”

Meanwhile, Billy Corgan recently launched an “artisanal tasting box” of vegan and paleo food through subscription service Farm to People. The limited-edition gift basket, which will be priced at $129.95 (£85), contains items such as sprouted hazelnut butter, bourbon smoked sea salt and chunky coconut raw chocolate bars.

Corgan has also been discussing his upcoming US tour with Marilyn Manson, which the pair are dubbing the ‘End Of Times Tour’.